"This is all the damage I care to take," Puller frontman Mike Lewis asserts in the opening track on Closer Than You Think, "Wishing." Sporting a world-weary and mysteriously earnest tone in his pleasant singing voice, Lewis (formerly of now-defunct mainstream rock act For Love Not Lisa) leads his Southern California-based outfit through 12 stirring tunes that make up a gem of a sophomore album. Puller is one of Tooth & Nail's last honest-to-goodness rock bands, with no punk mile-a-minute cliches or hardcore screaming to be found. These four talented musicians bend conventional guitar rock to fit their own mold of easily hummable indie rock, all the while walking the thin line between punk-like urgency ("She") and beautiful, lightly-strummed acoustic numbers ("If I Had These Things"). Lewis and his bandmates cascade intense riffs down on masterful time changes and muscular, solid grooves, with impressive results. The intensity of the hook-heavy "Out Of My Head" (featuring a sledgehammer riff reminiscent of early Pearl Jam) contrasts perfectly against the lilting, gorgeous harmonies of "Never The Less." Closer Than You Think is a fresh amalgam of post-punk and modern rock, and a notch above Puller's 1996 debut.